Chapter 192: Replica Uchiha Madara Enters the Fray!
Relationships were always mutual. When you found someone difficult to handle, the other party most likely also found you equally troublesome.
At this moment, Hyuga Ritsu and Nagato faced precisely this situation.
Even though Hyuga Ritsu clearly understood the Rinnegan's numerous abilities, actually engaging in combat made him truly experience just how troublesome these abilities proved when combined together—and this was without Deva Path Pain present.
Likewise—
Nagato also felt stymied.
The Byakugan's perception made sneak attacks and similar tactics completely useless. The two Kekkei Genkai of Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku granted the ability to respond to different situations—like an iron wall without any weaknesses.
In his view—
When dealing with this type of opponent lacking obvious exploitable weaknesses, the best method relied on absolute violence to crush and overwhelm them with devastating force.
But the Asura Path's violence wasn't sufficient.
Whether chainsaws, missiles, or everything else—none could effectively deal with White Yaksha. Even laser cannon strikes proved difficult to inflict effective damage. The laser cannon's firing required charging time—time sufficient for White Yaksha to construct adequately strong defenses.
Unfortunately, the most violent Deva Path Pain was presiding over Phantom Dragon Nine Consuming Seals and couldn't enter battle.
Within the mountain belly, Pain standing on the Gedo Statue spoke gravely. "At this rate, forget persisting two hours—we've only lasted ten minutes and already feel on the verge of collapse!"
Uchiha Tatsuhata nearby frowned tightly.
He'd discovered he'd been somewhat careless. Sunagakure's success had unconsciously inflated his ego, making him feel that with the power he currently controlled, even if not matching these Konoha ninja, delaying for a period should present no problems.
But clearly his assessment had major issues.
Unlike Sunagakure's decline, Konoha remained powerful even after fighting through an entire Third Shinobi World War, battling bloodily with each of the four great ninja villages individually, even after the subsequent internal coup that forced the Third Hokage from power, even after Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, defected—
Konoha still remained strong!
Konoha had tempered a new generation of pillars in this Third Shinobi World War's flames.
Yellow Flash Namikaze Minato.
White Yaksha Hyuga Ritsu.
Shisui of the Body Flicker Uchiha Shisui.
These three were outstanding individuals among Konoha Village's younger generation.
The oldest, Namikaze Minato, was merely twenty-four. Hyuga Ritsu and Uchiha Shisui—one sixteen, one fifteen—had both distinguished themselves during this Third Shinobi World War.
Besides these young people, there was also Hiruko, this late-blooming "old fellow." The combat power these individuals jointly unleashed completely exceeded Uchiha Tatsuhata's expectations.
Less than ten minutes had passed, yet his replica army had already been thoroughly routed.
Those Cloud ninja and Sand ninja jonin replicas not even worthy of possessing names had all been sealed. Chiyo and Troy's replicas had also been sealed one after another.
Now only Fourth Kazekage Rasa and Shimura Danzo's replicas still resisted stubbornly.
The former—replica Rasa—had completely hidden himself within a thick sphere entirely constructed from accumulated sand, forming absolute defense in the physical sense. Through a sensory ninjutsu unique to Sand techniques called "Third Eye," he observed external conditions, using the offense-defense integrated Sand technique to respond to the siege.
The latter—replica Shimura Danzo—possessed battle-hardened, seasoned Wind Release techniques and the strongest physique from his prime period. Of course, this wasn't why he'd persisted until now under the siege of Namikaze Minato, Uchiha Shisui, and others. Rather, Uchiha Fugaku hoped to personally eliminate this fellow.
So—
Minato and others were currently cooperating with Hiruko to attack replica Rasa.
But the steadily methodical replica Rasa truly proved difficult to handle. That thick, solid sand sphere possessed astonishing hardness. Ordinary ninjutsu attacks had no effect whatsoever. Minato had attempted attacking with Rasengan, merely creating a crater without penetrating the sphere to injure the replica Rasa hiding inside.
Moreover, this spherical shape had absolutely no exploitable openings.
Minato and Shisui's "extreme speed" faced this turtle shell with no room for application. Even Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique required first leaving coordinates to achieve spatial movement. Currently the sphere's interior lacked his formula coordinates, so he couldn't directly invade inside either.
As for using Flying Thunder God Technique to send the target far away—forget sending it to some desperate situation, even temporarily removing it from the battlefield couldn't be achieved. The sphere's surface sand constantly shifted, fundamentally unable to stably retain any formula markings.
Flying Thunder God Technique's formula markings could naturally be adjusted in size, but this adjustment range was limited. It couldn't be done on a single tiny grain of sand.
Therefore—
Replica Rasa after death had instead displayed great power, deploying his "Kage"-level strength to the fullest, making people involuntarily wonder how such a formidable Rasa had been killed by Missing-nin Anonymous.
In summary, replica Rasa alone temporarily restrained so many of Konoha's top-tier elite, temporarily holding off Minato and others.
But this was ultimately only temporary.
Rasa adopting this completely defensive posture could still use Sand techniques for combat, but this cumbersome sphere fundamentally couldn't move—just a stationary live target. No matter how solid, being breached was merely a matter of time.
"This won't work."
Pain turned his gaze toward Uchiha Tatsuhata.
Approximately two and a half hours remained until the One-Tail was completely sealed. Relying solely on the combat power they'd currently committed to the battlefield fundamentally couldn't persist. If they didn't increase commitment, it meant the One-Tail's sealing work would fail at the final step.
So much time and effort would all be wasted.
Pain naturally was unwilling to waste his efforts so futilely. If truly helpless, he wouldn't insist. But the current situation was that Uchiha Tatsuhata still concealed an unused trump card. This situation wasn't beyond salvation.
Uchiha Tatsuhata and Pain locked eyes, brow furrowed tightly.
If this were the previous Sunagakure situation, he naturally wouldn't be stingy about deploying replica Uchiha Madara as a trump card to decisively settle matters—both achieving the objective and continuing to maintain the trump card's secrecy.
But deploying this trump card in the current situation meant complete exposure. Afterward, he'd find it difficult to use this trump card to catch enemies by surprise, difficult to again exert decisive settling power.
Pain stared at the silent Uchiha Tatsuhata and urged, "Uchiha Tatsuhata, make a decision quickly! Do we continue completing the One-Tail's seal, or let all these days' effort go entirely to waste? Right now the decision is in your hands. After all, you brought the One-Tail. Currently only you possess the ability to change the situation."
His voice drifted through this spacious mountain belly.
The Venus flytrap "grew" on the wall. Zetsu's half-black, half-white face showed no expression changes.
"Ah! Still too weak!"
Uchiha Tatsuhata let out a sigh filled with helplessness.
Pain remained expressionless without commenting.
Uchiha Tatsuhata's crimson eyes saw tomoe merge into a pitch-black, slender, curved tomoe pattern.
Ocular technique Toyoakitsushihime—
Activate!
His right palm opened again. Pale life threads like fountain water gushed from his palm, all falling atop the Gedo Statue's left index finger. In the blink of an eye, they sketched a human form and completed coloring, weaving the replica body of that Konoha Asura who'd once rampaged across the shinobi world.
Dense, rigid black hair fell to the waist.
Wearing blood-red layered armor.
Clearly a replica lacking self-awareness, yet it still instinctively crossed both arms before its chest. Those crimson eyes revealed arrogance looking down upon the world.
Uchiha Shisui's Body Flicker Technique speed was truly no less than Namikaze Minato's Flying Thunder God Technique—at most limited only in movement range. But on this battlefield, it was already sufficient. He and Namikaze Minato competed like a race to seal the replicas.
"This is Uchiha Madara?"
Pain stared at this replica lacking self-awareness, retaining only battle instinct.
His heart couldn't help but tremble.
This was a completely different experience from observing that motionless, aged, withered corpse. Even the Rinnegan produced a stress reaction. In a trance, it was as if seeing that terrifying figure piloting the massive azure Susanoo, sweeping through the shinobi world with no match except Senju Hashirama.
His heart harbored no suspicion, only couldn't help marveling at Uchiha Madara's power!
Uchiha Tatsuhata also examined this replica Uchiha Madara whose physical condition was at its absolute peak period. He sighed. "If we weren't tied down by the One-Tail's seal, working together we could completely attempt inflicting massive casualties on these Konoha ninja."
He didn't dare boast about completely annihilating Hyuga Ritsu and others. He still held clear recognition of just how troublesome Flying Thunder God Technique was.
Pain didn't echo this meaningless hypothetical but instead urged, "Hurry up! The situation is deteriorating. If you keep dragging your feet, it'll truly become the most foolish piecemeal tactics!"
Most foolish piecemeal tactics?
Veins bulged at Uchiha Tatsuhata's temple, heart displeased. He simply didn't wish to prematurely expose his trump card. What relationship did this have with piecemeal tactics?
But he suppressed this unpleasant emotion.
Now wasn't the time to quarrel with Pain.
Uchiha Tatsuhata opened his mouth and uttered two words. "Go!"
Replica Uchiha Madara instantly shot out like an arrow leaving the bow. Seeing this, Pain also decisively formed seals, manipulating the large stone at the cave entrance to shift, opening the passage. After replica Uchiha Madara's blood-red lightning-fast figure disappeared, the large stone was moved back to its original position.
The mountain belly returned to its previous silence. Both Pain and Uchiha Tatsuhata returned to silent states, only persistently extracting the One-Tail's chakra from the ninja tool Shukaku pot.
On the plateau battlefield, Pain's statement "the situation is deteriorating" wasn't strategy to pressure Uchiha Tatsuhata and urge quick action, but an accurate description of actual circumstances.
Just as they'd worried and anticipated, Rasa's "absolute defense" ultimately wasn't truly impregnable.
Hiruko used Wood Release to entangle the flowing sand controlled by Rasa. Kakashi's Lightning Blade and Minato's Rasengan struck in succession, successfully penetrating the sand sphere. Uchiha Shisui followed immediately after. Using his Sharingan, he'd copied Minato's Rasengan. He supplemented with another Rasengan, thoroughly crushing this sand sphere. Sand scattered backward like a rainstorm.
Replica Rasa was likewise pierced through the chest by Uchiha Shisui's Rasengan.
Of course—
Replicas possessed immortal bodies.
Such damage only required a few breaths' time to complete regeneration. But for Minato and Shisui, these few breaths were already sufficient to accomplish many things. Because Shisui had ultimately exerted force to crush the sand sphere and injure replica Rasa, he needed an instant to adjust his breathing. And in precisely this instant, Minato seized the opportunity to implant the Self-Cursing Seal into replica Rasa's body.
As pitch-black cursed seal formulas spread and proliferated, replica Rasa's body became rigid, falling to the ground motionless like a mummy.
At this point—
Only Shimura Danzo still tangled in battle with Uchiha Fugaku remained, plus the five Rinnegan avatars engaged with Hyuga Ritsu. All other replicas had been sealed.
Speaking of which—
Though these replicas lacked self-awareness, retaining only battle instinct, they possessed immortal bodies compensating for consciousness and wisdom deficiencies. Simultaneously, they were completely immune to all genjutsu.
This was precisely why Uchiha Fugaku had been unable to defeat replica Shimura Danzo for so long. His Sharingan genjutsu was completely ineffective. He could only rely on Fire Release techniques and shuriken jutsu to fight replica Shimura Danzo. But these two methods couldn't form any advantage over replica Shimura Danzo.
Uchiha Shisui couldn't watch any longer and spoke up. "Clan Head, I'll help you!"
Hearing this, Uchiha Fugaku didn't refuse. His reason for demanding to personally deal with replica Shimura Danzo was wanting to personally eliminate this bastard who'd targeted their Uchiha clan for a lifetime—even though this was only Shimura Danzo's replica.
Unfortunately, he'd truly somewhat underestimated this replica Shimura Danzo's abilities, unable to achieve success for so long.
Uchiha Shisui's voluntary request was exactly what he desired.
Minato glanced around without interfering in the Uchiha's grudge against Shimura Danzo—even though it was only a replica. Anyway, Uchiha Shisui could resolve this problem.
His gaze turned toward the battlefield on the other side of the plateau.
The fierce battle between Hyuga Ritsu and the five Rinnegan avatars raged intensely. Both sides fought like raging fire. Hyuga Ritsu had pushed the abilities of Wood Release and Shikotsumyaku, two Kekkei Genkai, to their limits. Yet even so, he only barely held the upper hand, never able to thoroughly crush them.
Minato gripped the kunai in his hand tightly.
He prepared to go help.
But—
In this instant, Hyuga Ritsu suddenly shouted loudly, "Hokage-sama, be careful! A formidable character is approaching—looks like Uchiha Madara's replica!"
This shout—
Made Minato's heart involuntarily clench.
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